Difference between revisions of "Converting the webwork database from the latin1 to the utf8mb4 character set"

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Line 59: Line 59:
   
 
Looking at the results you will see information on every table, e.g.
 
Looking at the results you will see information on every table, e.g.
  +
 
| Name | Engine | Version | Row_format | Rows | Avg_row_length | Data_length | Max_data_length | Index_length | Data_free | Auto_increment | Create_time | Update_time | Check_time | Collation | Checksum | Create_options | Comment |
 
| Name | Engine | Version | Row_format | Rows | Avg_row_length | Data_length | Max_data_length | Index_length | Data_free | Auto_increment | Create_time | Update_time | Check_time | Collation | Checksum | Create_options | Comment |
 
+--------------------------------------+--------+---------+------------+-------+----------------+-------------+-------------------+--------------+-----------+----------------+---------------------+---------------------+---------------------+-------------------+----------+----------------+---------+
 
+--------------------------------------+--------+---------+------------+-------+----------------+-------------+-------------------+--------------+-----------+----------------+---------------------+---------------------+---------------------+-------------------+----------+----------------+---------+
 
  +
| OPL_DBchapter | MyISAM | 10 | Dynamic | 176 | 36 | 6348 | 281474976710655 | 16384 | 0 | 180 | 2021-03-07 16:25:08 | 2021-03-07 16:25:08 | 2021-03-07 16:25:08 | latin1_swedish_ci | NULL |
| OPL_section | MyISAM | 10 | Dynamic | 3072 | 43 | 133524 | 281474976710655 | 175104 | 0 | 3073 | 2021-03-07 16:25:09 | 2021-03-07 16:25:09 | 2021-03-07 16:25:09 | latin1_swedish_ci | NULL | | |
 
 
 
   
 
and see how many tables are using the latin1 character set. If there are only a few, note which ones they are.
 
and see how many tables are using the latin1 character set. If there are only a few, note which ones they are.

Revision as of 18:53, 10 March 2021

These instructions explain how to convert the webwork database from the latin1 to the utf8mb4 character set.

Terminal Window Notation

In a terminal window some commands will have to be run as root whereas others should be run as a regular user. We will use # to indicate that the command is to be run as root e.g.

# perl -MCPAN -e shell

and $ to indicate that the command is to be run as a normal user e.g.

$ mysql -u root -p 

Of course you can use sudo to run commands as root from a standard command prompt. In general we will use the same notation used in Installation Manual for 2.12 on Ubuntu 16.04.

Preliminaries

Check What the Current Character Set Is

Before we begin let's make use sure the webwork database is using the latin1 character set.

Log into mysql. Depending on your OS and mysql version, you will either use the command

$ mysql -u root -p 
Enter Password: <mysql root password>

or

$ sudo mysql
[sudo] password for wwadmin: <wwadmin password>

You should see something very similar to

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 4
...

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

Now issue the following mysql commands:

mysql> Use webwork;
...
Database changed


mysql> SELECT @@character_set_database;

If the webwork database is using the latin1 character set you will see:

+--------------------------+
| @@character_set_database |
+--------------------------+
| latin1                   |
+--------------------------+
1 row in set (0.04 sec)

Independent of the above result, run the following command which will show the collation for every table. The collation specifies the character set.

mysql> SHOW TABLE STATUS FROM webwork;

Looking at the results you will see information on every table, e.g.

| Name                                 | Engine | Version | Row_format | Rows  | Avg_row_length | Data_length | Max_data_length   | Index_length | Data_free | Auto_increment | Create_time         | Update_time         | Check_time          | Collation         | Checksum | Create_options | Comment |
+--------------------------------------+--------+---------+------------+-------+----------------+-------------+-------------------+--------------+-----------+----------------+---------------------+---------------------+---------------------+-------------------+----------+----------------+---------+
| OPL_DBchapter                        | MyISAM |      10 | Dynamic    |   176 |             36 |        6348 |   281474976710655 |        16384 |         0 |            180 | 2021-03-07 16:25:08 | 2021-03-07 16:25:08 | 2021-03-07 16:25:08 | latin1_swedish_ci |     NULL |

and see how many tables are using the latin1 character set. If there are only a few, note which ones they are.

Now exit MySQL

mysql> exit
Bye
$

Assuming the webwork database is using the latin1 character set, continue reading these instructions.

Check what the default character set is for MySQL on your new or upgraded server

Log into mysql on your new or upgraded server. Depending on your OS and mysql version, you will either use the command

$ mysql -u root -p 
Enter Password: <mysql root password>

or

$ sudo mysql
[sudo] password for wwadmin: <wwadmin password>

You should see something very similar to

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 4
...

Now issue the following mysql commands:

mysql> SHOW VARIABLES WHERE Variable_name LIKE 'character\_set\_%' OR Variable_name LIKE 'collation%';

and you should see

+--------------------------+--------------------+
| Variable_name            | Value              |
+--------------------------+--------------------+
| character_set_client     | utf8mb4            |
| character_set_connection | utf8mb4            |
| character_set_database   | utf8mb4            |
| character_set_filesystem | binary             |
| character_set_results    | utf8mb4            |
| character_set_server     | utf8mb4            |
| character_set_system     | utf8               |
| collation_connection     | utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci |
| collation_database       | utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci |
| collation_server         | utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci |
+--------------------------+--------------------+
10 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> 

Now exit MySQL

 mysql> exit
Bye
$


If your version of MySQL is not using utf8mb4 as listed above, I would strongly suggest that you upgrade MySQL to version 8. You can find out the version of MySQL on your server with the command

$ mysql -V

Version 8 uses the character set utf8mb4 by default. If for whatever reason you can not upgrade to version 8, then you should edit the my.cnf file which is probably in the /etc/mysql/ directory. Actually my.cnf might be redirected to another file (e.g. mysql.cnf) so edit the appropriate file. You will probably have to be root to edit the file (e.g. "sudo gedit mysql.cnf). At the end of the file add the following

[client]
default-character-set=utf8mb4     

[mysql]
default-character-set=utf8mb4

[mysqld]
init-connect='SET NAMES utf8mb4'
collation_server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci
character_set_server=utf8mb4

Then save the file and exit. Restart mysql

$ sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart

and then log into mysql again and repeat the command

mysql> SHOW VARIABLES WHERE Variable_name LIKE 'character\_set\_%' OR Variable_name LIKE 'collation%';

to check that mysql is now using utf8mb4

Backup the webwork database

IMPORTANT: Do not skip this step.

First we create a directory to hold the backup file and cd to the new directory

$ mkdir mysql_backups
$ cd mysql_backups

From now on in these instructions I will assume you are using the older method of logging into mysql as root using a password rather than the newer method of sudoing into mysql. If this is not the case, use sudo wherever the mysql password is used in these instructions.

Now use the mysqldump command to create the backup file.

 $ mysqldump -u root -p webwork > webwork_backup.sql
Enter Password: <mysql root password>

After the process finishes, the file webwork_backup.sql will be located in the mysql_backups directory.

Restore the webwork database

Hopefully this will not be necessary but here is how the restore the backedup webwork database.

First we have to log into MySQL and then drop and recreate the webwork database.

$ mysql -u root -p 
Enter password: <mysql root password>
mysql> drop database webwork;
mysql> CREATE DATABASE webwork;
mysql> GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, ALTER, DROP, LOCK TABLES ON webwork.* TO 'webworkWrite'@'localhost';

Now exit MySQL

mysql> exit
Bye
$

cd to the mysql_backups directory the contains the backup sql file.

$ cd
$ cd mysql_backups

and use the following command to restore the database

mysql -u root -p webwork < webwork_backup.sql
Enter password: <mysql root password>

Now connect to WeBWorK and everything should be restored.